LAS CRUCES — In any emergency, getting the right instructions to the people most at risk is critical to protecting public safety.

When a mysterious chemical sickened workers Tuesday in a Santa Teresa manufacturing plant, authorities relied upon a reverse 911 system to spread notices to the hundreds of workers who were on the clock at nearby businesses.

That was bolstered by widespread email notices sent by a well-connected Santa Teresa industrial park business group.

At 8:08 a.m., the first reverse 911 call was phoned in from someone reporting to be at the FXI plant in Santa Teresa, according to Hugo Costa, executive director for the countywide 911 center. The alert went to 232 landlines.

Officials later on said that some 200 industrial park employees experienced symptoms including nausea, dizziness and trouble breathing. No other more-serious injuries resulted. FXI — or Foamex Innovations — was the site of the initial investigation into the mystery substance. But the focus shifted throughout the day to other nearby areas of the park, officials said.

A recap

The Santa Teresa Fire Department was the first agency on the scene, around 8:20 a.m., Costa said.

At 9:20 a.m., a second reverse phone call —using the county's automated system —was sent to 232 landlines within a 1 square-mile area around the park, Costa said. At 10:01 a.m., a second reverse 911 call was placed.

Advertisement

Costa said the area of concern included only businesses, so no homes received reverse 911 calls. The system works by allowing emergency personnel to outline a shape on a map. Then the system, using telephone records, identifies all the landlines within it, Costa said.

"It will find all the phone numbers on that map," he said.

The call — and the emergency message —then go out.

Authorities first advised people to stay indoors, shut off air conditioning and seal off doors and windows, said Jess Williams, Doña Ana County spokesman. But that was subsequently changed to a mandatory evacuation order, as a safety precaution, he said.

Alerts from Nixle, a free service that notifies its subscribers about emergency incidents via text message, also went out, Costa said.

In addition, The Border Industrial Association — a group of mostly Santa Teresa industrial-park businesses — sent out its own messages via email, said Jerry Pacheco, vice president of the association. The group, well-attuned to its 70 members, was relaying messages from fire officials, he said.

"We'd notified everybody in the park what was going on," he said.

Pacheco estimated about 1,200 people were evacuated from the industrial park in about a one-hour span.

A number of agencies, ranging from a Las Cruces hazmat team to local firefighters to state police responded throughout the day, as officials attempted to determine the source and cause of the incident. Around early evening, they were still investigating.

"Unfortunately, these things happen, but fortunately no one got hurt," Pacheco said. "I can't say enough about how all of the agencies worked together so quickly."

Williams said he didn't have a total for the number of personnel who were involved.

Reverse 911 upgrades

The reverse 911 system was a good fit for sending out an emergency notice in Tuesday's incident, because the impacted area contained only businesses, which still rely on landline phones, Costa said.

But landlines increasingly are being phased out by the general public for cell phones. The system is slated to be upgraded in November, to allow people to register their cell phones for the reverse 911 notification, he said.

The reverse 911 system first was OK'd for purchase in November 2006 by Doña Ana County officials, who got a federal grant for the project, according to Sun-News archives.

Diana Alba Soular can be reached at (575) 541-5443; follow her on Twitter @AlbaSoular